1 00:00:02,070 --> 00:00:11,580 Welcome. Welcome and good afternoon, everybody. I am delighted to present you a speaker today, Professor David Tull, who is, 2 00:00:11,580 --> 00:00:15,760 among other things, the OCR elsewhere in modern Israeli studies at the University of Sussex. 3 00:00:16,290 --> 00:00:21,150 Previously he was the kind of chair in these was in Israeli studies at the University of Calgary, 4 00:00:21,570 --> 00:00:25,940 and he has written extensively on Israel's security and diplomatic history. 5 00:00:26,340 --> 00:00:31,230 Among the many works he published. I know just a few. 6 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:43,620 The American Nuclear Disarmament Disarmament Dilemma, published by Syracuse University Press in 2008 and War in Palestine 1948. 7 00:00:44,130 --> 00:00:47,760 Strategy and Diplomacy published by Routledge in 2003. 8 00:00:48,180 --> 00:00:56,790 The title of his talk today, The Making of an Ally of Alliance, The Making and History of US-Israeli Relationship, 9 00:00:57,510 --> 00:01:00,900 is also the title of his forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press. 10 00:01:01,260 --> 00:01:06,540 Because of that, thank you for coming. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. 11 00:01:10,380 --> 00:01:19,830 As Yaakov said, I'm working now on a book which you will discuss the origin development, the history of the American-Israeli relationship. 12 00:01:20,370 --> 00:01:26,010 It's about from Plato to Natal that this is going to confer really the range of 13 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:33,989 relationship from the mid 19th century up to well it's very difficult to say, 14 00:01:33,990 --> 00:01:37,920 but up to quantity present in this talk today. 15 00:01:38,650 --> 00:01:44,700 And I would like to introduce to you what I think are the core ideas, 16 00:01:44,700 --> 00:01:55,440 the core concepts that are in the base of the Israeli American relationship, and which I think are what I call constants in this relationship. 17 00:01:56,100 --> 00:01:59,100 That is this core idea is, as far as I understand it, 18 00:01:59,580 --> 00:02:09,270 these core ideas are what drives a driven in the past and still I think drives the American Israeli special relationship. 19 00:02:10,830 --> 00:02:21,870 It was President John F Kennedy who told Golda meir in December 1962 that. 20 00:02:25,740 --> 00:02:27,870 Well, what is that? 21 00:02:28,950 --> 00:02:36,120 The United States has a special relationship with Israel in the Middle East, really comparable only to that which it has with Britain. 22 00:02:36,660 --> 00:02:45,000 And historians are arguing over the question when the special relationship had begun, what is the nature of the special relationship? 23 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:56,250 And I will argue that this relationship had started very, very early between the Zionist movement and the United States. 24 00:02:56,790 --> 00:03:04,259 And they are, as I said, they had something which is constant and which we can see through all the years going on. 25 00:03:04,260 --> 00:03:11,160 And these principles which I'm going to introduce to you today, began at least politically, 26 00:03:11,430 --> 00:03:19,950 with President Woodrow Wilson, who was the first American president to deal politically with the Zionist movement. 27 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:25,020 That happened when the British government asked for his endorsement of the Balfour 28 00:03:25,020 --> 00:03:30,480 Declaration after a lengthy process in which American Jewish Zionists were also involved. 29 00:03:30,870 --> 00:03:36,510 Most known among them President Wilson's friend, Justice Louis Brandeis. 30 00:03:37,110 --> 00:03:45,900 President Wilson granted his support to the declaration. The reason for his decision were a mixture of religion and idealism. 31 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:51,700 Woodrow Wilson grew up in a religious family. He was a keen and devoted reader of the Bible. 32 00:03:52,020 --> 00:04:01,500 And his religious devotion led him to articulate deep Christian sentiment favouring the fulfilment of biblical prophecy in 1912. 33 00:04:01,530 --> 00:04:09,780 He likened the Jewish longing to their homeland, to the spiritual feeling that motivated European immigrants to come to unknown America. 34 00:04:10,260 --> 00:04:10,830 With that, 35 00:04:11,220 --> 00:04:20,400 Wilson tied himself to a tradition that went back to the 17th century and to the Puritans that left mainly England and came to the new world. 36 00:04:21,510 --> 00:04:24,690 The rhetoric the Puritans used was biblical. 37 00:04:25,500 --> 00:04:33,840 They referred to themselves as the chosen people, singled out by God to an example for all nations, just like the biblical Israel. 38 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:37,560 However, when they claimed that they were new Israel, 39 00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:42,960 the Puritans and those who followed them did not mean that the Jews ended up their role in history. 40 00:04:43,230 --> 00:04:48,390 A common thought among Catholic Christians and also among some Protestant denominations. 41 00:04:48,780 --> 00:04:57,150 When they likened themselves to enchant Israel, the Puritans and their successors thought that the Jews should go back to their homeland. 42 00:04:57,660 --> 00:05:04,830 In fact, Protestant eschatology provided the basis for the appearance of the gentile Zionists who 43 00:05:05,250 --> 00:05:12,240 preceded Theodor Herzl in their call for the re-establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. 44 00:05:13,530 --> 00:05:22,920 From the very first settlers, explains historian Hilton, over a single belief in Jewish restoration was endemic to American culture. 45 00:05:23,610 --> 00:05:29,820 The call was and still is based on two major undercurrents existing command evangelical Protestant Americans, 46 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:34,590 the dispositional pre millennial ism and the inerrancy of the Bible. 47 00:05:38,790 --> 00:05:42,119 According to the dispensed dispensation. I'll bring millennials in. 48 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:46,680 What you see here are seven dispensations and we are now in the seventh. 49 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:48,600 According to this dispensation, 50 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:56,010 all three millennial lists the time when God would engage with the Jewish exodus and would bring them back to their homeland in Palestine 51 00:05:56,220 --> 00:06:04,920 was near the Jewish return would usher in eschatological process that would lead to the return of Jesus Christ and his 10,000. 52 00:06:04,950 --> 00:06:13,470 In his thousand year reign, Christian salvation became dependent on the fate of the Jewish people and the return to the land God promised to them. 53 00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:19,050 The other religious group is the fundamentalists who believe in the integrity of the Bible. 54 00:06:19,230 --> 00:06:23,160 For them, God's promise to Abraham, to your descendants. 55 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:32,400 I will give this land is not just a religious text, but actual political decree and historical truth that should be implemented as written. 56 00:06:33,660 --> 00:06:39,120 In 1985, about 40% of the Americans believed in the Bible's inerrancy, 57 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:48,390 and the poll made in 1996 revealed that 46% of the Americans believe that God promised the land to the Jews. 58 00:06:48,930 --> 00:06:53,640 Believing that and believing the gut's promise to Abraham was in actual political decree. 59 00:06:54,210 --> 00:07:01,860 No. No wonder that Americans, people and presidents could understand the Jewish claim to the territory they occupied by force, 60 00:07:02,250 --> 00:07:07,590 even if politically they think that such occupation and all are problematic. 61 00:07:08,370 --> 00:07:12,960 One vehicle through which many American people had learned about guts promised to Abraham. 62 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:19,390 Was the Sunday schools in 1998. 63 00:07:19,630 --> 00:07:28,840 There were 164 Christian denominations listed in the National Council of Churches of Christ Yearbook in more than 73 million members. 64 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:36,190 In a survey conducted in the six in 16 of these with more than 2 million members, 65 00:07:36,190 --> 00:07:43,180 it was found out that the Sunday school contained stories about Abraham, Joshua or both of them. 66 00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:52,150 And the lesson to be drawn for those stories is that Israel was the land promised by God to Israel, to these very lights. 67 00:07:52,690 --> 00:08:03,790 President Nixon tells in his memory that years of training at home, in church had their effect on my thinking and you can see the rest on the board. 68 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:13,060 This tendency were manifested in the CEO political rhetoric presidents and officials used to describe their attitude toward Zionism. 69 00:08:14,110 --> 00:08:20,319 Expressing his pride in the role he played in the publication of the Balfour Declaration, Wilson said, 70 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:27,220 In order to think that I, the son of immigrants, would be able to help to restore the Holy Land to its people. 71 00:08:28,030 --> 00:08:31,210 Four centuries later, in November 1953, 72 00:08:31,630 --> 00:08:38,980 President Harry Truman was invited to the Jewish Theological Seminar in New York to meet a group of Jewish dignitaries. 73 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:45,400 His old friend, M.G. Jacobson, introduced him to the theologians to the civil law giants. 74 00:08:46,660 --> 00:08:50,650 This is the man who helped to create the state of Israel, said Jacobson. 75 00:08:51,190 --> 00:08:54,670 And Truman retorted, What do you mean, help to create? 76 00:08:54,880 --> 00:09:05,620 I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus. President Jemmy Carter, who had a certain Carter who at a certain point became critic of Israel, wrote in his memories, 77 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:13,930 I consider this homeland of the Jews for the Jews to be incompatible with the teaching of the Bible, hence ordained by God. 78 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:21,370 It might be more for mentioning here that throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, 79 00:09:21,850 --> 00:09:28,060 most of the evangelical Christians believed that the return of the Jews to their land should be God's work. 80 00:09:28,330 --> 00:09:31,570 A way of thinking identical to that of Orthodox Jews. 81 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:38,980 Only if you believe that the Christian Church should actively assist the Jews together back in the land of Israel. 82 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:44,200 However, following the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, 83 00:09:44,590 --> 00:09:51,010 and even more so in the wake of Israel's territorial expansion following the June 1967 war, 84 00:09:51,490 --> 00:09:57,820 more and more evangelical Christians turned to believe that indeed the prophecies were coming true, 85 00:09:58,090 --> 00:10:01,270 and they shifted their spiritual beliefs in the return of the Jews. 86 00:10:02,020 --> 00:10:07,010 Sorry. We don't want to stop now, right? 87 00:10:07,400 --> 00:10:10,310 Just remind me later. Yeah. 88 00:10:13,220 --> 00:10:21,200 So the prophecy were coming through and they shifted their spiritual belief in the return of the Jews to their homeland into active political creed. 89 00:10:22,190 --> 00:10:30,410 Wilson Support for the Jewish homeland derived also from his ideas about self-determination and the power of democracy. 90 00:10:30,980 --> 00:10:34,700 Those ideas were not disconnected from his religious education. 91 00:10:34,970 --> 00:10:39,740 Combined with the political events unfolded in the wake of the First World War, 92 00:10:40,700 --> 00:10:49,040 drawing from the Calvinist doctrine of equal opportunities, which was in the heart of the American Hegelian Hegelian egalitarianism. 93 00:10:49,460 --> 00:10:57,410 Wilson believed that essentially all men were capable of self-government, either in actual or in potential. 94 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:08,210 His church, the Self-Rule Presbyterian Church, provided him with an apparent evidence of that ability in his politics, all future politics. 95 00:11:08,660 --> 00:11:13,970 Wilson represented and helped to advance the cause of liberalism and Republicanism, 96 00:11:14,570 --> 00:11:22,580 which led to the creation of foreign policy that emphasised individual rights and liberties with democracy embodying these rights. 97 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:31,970 This is evident from the following statement President Wilson made I believe great God presided over the inception of this nation 98 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:41,330 that we have chosen and prominently chosen to show the way to the nations of the world how they should walk in the path of liberty. 99 00:11:43,510 --> 00:11:46,960 The Zionists use that rhetoric in their diplomatic campaigns. 100 00:11:47,380 --> 00:11:57,220 They offered to build to the. I agree. 101 00:11:59,290 --> 00:12:08,860 And they offer to build a national home for the Jews in Palestine and to substitute the tyrannical Ottoman rule with a liberal democracy. 102 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:12,400 Messages that fit well into Wilson's new diplomacy, 103 00:12:12,580 --> 00:12:18,100 as well as his vision regarding the right of self-determination for national groups 104 00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:23,290 and the kind of political regime and constitutions they should build for themselves. 105 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:30,370 Truman's advisers repeated this theme about three decades later during an argument that took place 106 00:12:30,370 --> 00:12:36,610 in the White House between George Marshall and President Truman political adviser Clifford Clarke. 107 00:12:38,560 --> 00:12:47,410 Clarke argued that the Democratic Jewish state would be a stabilising element in the Middle East in an area as unstable as the Middle East, 108 00:12:47,650 --> 00:12:52,690 where there is now, not now and never has been any tradition of democratic government. 109 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:57,460 It is important for the long range security of our country and indeed the world 110 00:12:57,700 --> 00:13:01,690 that the nation committed to the democratic system be established there. 111 00:13:03,670 --> 00:13:11,799 Truman preferred his advisors position over Marshall's and the argument that Israel was and probably is the 112 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:18,650 only democracy in an undemocratic regime justified American support of Israel in the eyes of presidents. 113 00:13:18,670 --> 00:13:29,409 Since then, American presidents justify their support of Israel also because it is a legitimate member of the international community whose 114 00:13:29,410 --> 00:13:38,500 establishment was sanctioned first by the League of Nations and then reiterated by the United Nations November 1947 Partition Resolution, 115 00:13:39,250 --> 00:13:45,370 when he debated whether to grant recognition to the state declared on May 15, 1948. 116 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:55,150 Truman consider this as a promise that should be kept, just as all promises made by responsible, civilised governments should be kept. 117 00:13:55,360 --> 00:14:02,200 Quote unquote. The legitimacy of Israel and its right to secure existence were fundamental themes that 118 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:07,090 American officials from President down the ladder reiterated throughout the years. 119 00:14:08,410 --> 00:14:15,730 Jewish history was another argument justifying down Americans strong attachment to Israel during the 19th century, 120 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:22,360 mainline American Protestants feel guilty for Christianity's historical treatment of the Jews and the 121 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:29,560 UNSC breakable cruelties they had suffered at the hands of European Christians for hundreds of years. 122 00:14:31,450 --> 00:14:35,740 Carl VH was head of the American Christian Palestine Committee, 123 00:14:35,980 --> 00:14:46,390 stated in January 1950 that Jewish homelessness and anti-Semitism are Christian created and therefore are Christian responsibility. 124 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:55,390 President Eisenhower was considered as a less friendly president to Israel, wrote in his diary in early 1956. 125 00:14:56,890 --> 00:15:01,450 Israel has a very strong position in the heart and emotions of the Western world 126 00:15:01,690 --> 00:15:07,750 because of the tragic suffering of the Jews throughout 2500 years of history. 127 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:13,360 The Holocaust only strengthened this sentiment. This was a sensitive issue, 128 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:22,510 mainly among mainline Protestants because of the intellectual leadership the German Protestant church provided to the American Protestant Church, 129 00:15:22,930 --> 00:15:30,790 the passive support of the German Protestant Church and its followers of the Nazi rule deeply shocked American Protestants. 130 00:15:31,210 --> 00:15:34,600 In 1942, in the middle of the Second World War, 131 00:15:34,900 --> 00:15:42,490 a group of Protestants established the Christian Council on Palestine with Reinhold Niebuhr as one of its members. 132 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:49,690 The group's purpose was to arouse Christian concern in action in light of Hitler's persecution 133 00:15:49,900 --> 00:15:56,230 of the Jews and to draw attention to Palestine as the only available refuge for the Jews. 134 00:15:56,950 --> 00:16:05,680 The group was involved also in the reactivation of the American Palestine Committee and non-Jewish organisation. 135 00:16:07,330 --> 00:16:16,600 President Truman was of course horrified by the Holocaust and President Jemmy Carter stated that memories of the Holocaust are still alive. 136 00:16:17,950 --> 00:16:20,290 Ronald Reagan was just as much committed. 137 00:16:20,860 --> 00:16:31,540 The Holocaust, I believe, left America with the moral responsibility to ensure that what would happen to the Jews under Hitler never happens again. 138 00:16:32,620 --> 00:16:41,110 Israeli leaders on their part did not hesitate using the Holocaust as a reminder and a reason for the United States to support Israel. 139 00:16:41,710 --> 00:16:48,250 David Ben-Gurion would reiterate this theme time and again in his contacts with various American presidents. 140 00:16:49,150 --> 00:16:53,350 On one occasion, in a letter he sent to President John F Kennedy in June 19. 141 00:16:53,430 --> 00:16:59,100 62, he justified Israel's request for arms in the following argument. 142 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:03,660 We are confronted with a unique security problem. 143 00:17:04,290 --> 00:17:11,130 What was done to 6 million of our brethren 20 years ago could be done to the 2 million Jews of Israel. 144 00:17:12,300 --> 00:17:21,390 A direct line leads from this message to Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence that Israel was still facing the threat of a second holocaust, 145 00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:30,120 this time from Iran, fighting against the treaty negotiated with Iran over its nuclear program, Netanyahu stated. 146 00:17:30,660 --> 00:17:42,390 Just ask. The Nazis sought to crush civilisation, so Iran seeks to dominate the region with the declared intention of destroying the Jewish state. 147 00:17:43,350 --> 00:17:47,220 These arguments did find a chord in an America in the American heart. 148 00:17:48,510 --> 00:17:57,720 Religion, values and history seem to put the United States on a prudent, predetermined course in its attitude toward Israel. 149 00:17:58,470 --> 00:18:02,670 But can we say the same thing about Israel's association with the United States? 150 00:18:03,330 --> 00:18:07,980 Was it only natural for Israel to seek a special relationship with United States? 151 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:15,030 Or was it a matter of convenience and expediency? Which is the world wishing to rely on the strongest power in the world? 152 00:18:15,930 --> 00:18:20,280 The truth of the matter is that, unlike the nature of U.S. foreign policy, 153 00:18:20,550 --> 00:18:28,560 the Zionist and Israel's foreign policy was and still is much more pragmatic and realistic than ideological. 154 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:38,430 From the very first days of its existence, the Zionist leaders attributed high importance to the support of a great power in the Zionist project. 155 00:18:42,310 --> 00:18:46,389 Hertzel tried and failed to recruit the Ottoman Empire and later Wilhelm, 156 00:18:46,390 --> 00:18:54,010 the second the German Kaiser to the Zionist cause, the Zionists were more successful in their attempts to recruit Britain. 157 00:18:54,760 --> 00:19:01,809 One major result, of course, was the Balfour Declaration and later it was given mandate over Palestine. 158 00:19:01,810 --> 00:19:07,270 The British practically acted to carry out the obligation they made in the Balfour Declaration. 159 00:19:08,110 --> 00:19:14,920 However, the British chapter in the history of Zionism movement ended in May 1939, 160 00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:21,729 when the British government published a white paper that set very strict limits on the immigration of Jews to 161 00:19:21,730 --> 00:19:28,900 Palestine and limited significantly the ability of the Jews in Palestine to purchase land mainly from Arabs. 162 00:19:29,350 --> 00:19:35,980 The Zionist movement sought now a new ally and the natural alternative was the United States. 163 00:19:36,850 --> 00:19:46,210 However, the Zionists and the State of Israel did not appreciate the links with the United States because of America's moral standing and values. 164 00:19:46,930 --> 00:19:54,490 It was the Jewish community and the way American political institutions could be used to advance Zionist and Israeli interests. 165 00:19:54,790 --> 00:19:58,660 That led the Zionists to seek the support of the United States. 166 00:19:59,650 --> 00:20:04,240 David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish community in Palestine during the years of the mandate 167 00:20:04,390 --> 00:20:09,340 and Israel's first prime minister was well familiar with the United States. 168 00:20:10,420 --> 00:20:18,580 He visited the United States for the first time in May 1915, during which he met Paula Montas, who became his wife. 169 00:20:19,330 --> 00:20:23,800 The first visit was followed by many others during his visit. 170 00:20:24,010 --> 00:20:31,810 Ben-Gurion used to spend a lot of time at the New York Public Library reading extensively about the history of the United States, 171 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:44,930 its political system. And in particular how policy was shaped in that most developed and democratic of nations, quote unquote. 172 00:20:46,550 --> 00:20:53,720 Through his observations and study, Ben-Gurion came to appreciate both the American people and the American institutions. 173 00:20:54,290 --> 00:21:01,490 He saw a resemblance between the Zionist and American pioneers and admired what those pioneers had achieved. 174 00:21:01,820 --> 00:21:11,690 However, for Ben-Gurion, the more significant lesson and experience was the American political system, which gave power to public opinion. 175 00:21:12,980 --> 00:21:19,850 Ben-Gurion was especially impressed by the way the American Irish had managed during the 1920s to become a 176 00:21:19,850 --> 00:21:27,710 pressure group that mobilised American public opinion and gained American support for an independent Irish state. 177 00:21:28,340 --> 00:21:37,610 The Jews should do the same, he felt for Israel. The free speech restored free press and free communication so abundant in the United States, 178 00:21:37,610 --> 00:21:44,120 argued Ben-Gurion made it the most viable place for Zionist to mobilise the masses. 179 00:21:44,300 --> 00:21:47,930 Jews as well as non-Jews towards the Israeli cause. 180 00:21:48,710 --> 00:21:57,860 Ben-Gurion attitude toward United States should be viewed within the broader context of his view of the world and its relations with Israel. 181 00:21:58,550 --> 00:22:04,220 Ben-Gurion believed that the Jewish people were unique in the sense that they were alone in the world. 182 00:22:04,460 --> 00:22:08,900 A people who dwell alone. Throughout the history of the Jewish. 183 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:16,640 Throughout history, the Jewish nation was singular in its language, religion, culture and standing in the world. 184 00:22:18,590 --> 00:22:27,770 Ben-Gurion believed that the Walt attitude toward Israel tilted from open hostility to compliance and acceptance of Israel's existence. 185 00:22:28,250 --> 00:22:36,170 On the one side, still, the Arab countries who wanted to see Israel destroyed and on the other side stood the United States, 186 00:22:36,500 --> 00:22:43,100 which acknowledged the right of Israel to exist but did not really care whether it would continue to exist or not. 187 00:22:44,210 --> 00:22:53,540 That in October 1941, Ben-Gurion declared that he put no faith in princes, neither in Churchill nor in Roosevelt. 188 00:22:55,820 --> 00:23:01,490 In this world, argued Ben-Gurion, where the Jews dwelled alone on the wall. 189 00:23:01,490 --> 00:23:04,070 Jewry were Israel's true allies. 190 00:23:05,180 --> 00:23:13,130 In it, Ben-Gurion sold the Jewish community in the United States as the hinterland of Israel and one of its most profound assets. 191 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:22,100 In July 1955, he stated, The Jewish community in the United States is Israel's only and true allies. 192 00:23:23,870 --> 00:23:31,520 The American political system allowed the American Jews to become a strong power that could help Israel in times of need. 193 00:23:32,300 --> 00:23:39,590 The Jews, argued Ben-Gurion, should exercise that power whenever Israel was in need of help. 194 00:23:40,190 --> 00:23:47,150 In an address he delivered in August 1951 to an American Zionist organisation, he made that point. 195 00:23:47,870 --> 00:23:54,740 The Zionist, to learn to live in free and democratic countries can and should always assist Israel. 196 00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:05,450 There were about 5 million Jews in the United States in 1948, a small percentage within the total of the American population. 197 00:24:05,900 --> 00:24:10,610 But their cohesiveness and organisation made them political power to be reckoned with. 198 00:24:19,430 --> 00:24:30,920 The Jews as a collective did and do have political power beyond their numbers in society during the 1930 and 1940s. 199 00:24:32,710 --> 00:24:47,230 Hmm. During the 1930s and 1940s, out of about 5 million American Jews, only 100000 to 150000 were Zionist. 200 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:54,730 They were the rest were none or anti-Zionist, which are not the same category, non Zionist anti-Zionist. 201 00:24:55,300 --> 00:24:56,260 During those years, 202 00:24:56,260 --> 00:25:04,690 the Jewish community as a whole became the richest community among Jews in the world and the richest ethnic community in the United States. 203 00:25:05,230 --> 00:25:11,890 They had power and access to the corridors of power and they used that power and that axis. 204 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:16,240 Prominent Jews like Judge Louis Brandeis, they are all here above. 205 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:25,629 And now you can play the game of who is who. Prominent Jews like Judge Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, Stefan s Wise, David Nies, 206 00:25:25,630 --> 00:25:31,660 Abraham Fineberg and Max Fischer, to mention only a few had close ties with presidents. 207 00:25:31,990 --> 00:25:36,280 Fineberg was an adviser on Israeli affairs to Truman, Kennedy and Johnson. 208 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:42,130 Fisher walked for 40 years with American presidents on Jewish and American issues. 209 00:25:42,430 --> 00:25:46,120 His strong interconnection was with President Nixon. 210 00:25:47,860 --> 00:25:55,120 Israeli diplomats deliver through the American Jews messages regarding issues that matter 211 00:25:55,120 --> 00:26:00,910 to Israel and ask the Jews to exert pressure on the members of the administration, 212 00:26:01,060 --> 00:26:06,460 either directly or through their congressional representatives where necessary. 213 00:26:07,030 --> 00:26:15,730 More than that, as Jeremy Suri has shown in his study on Henry Kissinger, American Jews climbed along the ladder within the government, 214 00:26:16,030 --> 00:26:21,280 holding high rank positions in the State Department and the White House gate. 215 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:28,180 They worked, of course, for the American government and were no less loyal to the United States than their non-Jew peers. 216 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:36,130 But they found it easier to discuss and to talk with the Israelis, who in turn found it easier to deal with them. 217 00:26:37,390 --> 00:26:41,770 Thus, Ben-Gurion expectations for the American Jews were fully met. 218 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:49,809 The American Jews, Zionist and non-scientist led campaigns aiming to advance the Zionist ghost from 219 00:26:49,810 --> 00:26:54,970 Brandeis involvement in convincing Wilson to support the Balfour Declaration. 220 00:26:55,720 --> 00:27:02,590 The Zionist pressure on congressmen to endorse pro-Zionist resolution in the 1920s, up to the 1940s, 221 00:27:03,670 --> 00:27:07,780 up to the active participation of Jews within the administration, 222 00:27:07,780 --> 00:27:13,930 and out of it in the struggle that led eventually to the establishment of the State of Israel. 223 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:34,120 Philip Kucinich, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in the United States, outlined in July 1979 the logic of the American Jew actions. 224 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:38,830 As an American Jew, I have a dual obligation, but not a loyalty. 225 00:27:39,340 --> 00:27:43,240 I have an obligation to my country in any way I can. 226 00:27:43,510 --> 00:27:48,310 I have an obligation to my people, to the people. To my people from which I see them. 227 00:27:52,130 --> 00:28:00,950 There is one example from October 1973, while the October war was raging, to demonstrate the American commitment to Israel, 228 00:28:00,950 --> 00:28:06,680 which also includes in it an American Jewish commitment to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. 229 00:28:07,010 --> 00:28:15,230 The Israeli ambassador seemed to deny it, negotiated with Henry Kissinger the delivery of tanks and plants to Israel. 230 00:28:15,860 --> 00:28:21,829 Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon told the Israelis at an early stage of the fighting that 231 00:28:21,830 --> 00:28:27,230 the United States would provide Israel with all the weapons it would lose during the war, 232 00:28:27,410 --> 00:28:29,270 but only after the end of the war. 233 00:28:30,050 --> 00:28:39,470 As the president, under Kissinger's advice, did not want the United States to look like it was siding too blindly with Israel in its war with Egypt. 234 00:28:40,310 --> 00:28:44,360 Seymour Cardin is the Israeli ambassador to the United States at the time. 235 00:28:44,660 --> 00:28:52,550 Asked which to argue with Kissinger over the play, the pace of the deliveries and this is how it's reported. 236 00:28:52,760 --> 00:29:02,580 One of the conversation with Kissinger ended. I didn't put it here. 237 00:29:03,210 --> 00:29:13,330 No. It's not here. No. Oh. Sorry, because I had the original document in its Hebrew, so I'll spell that with you in any case. 238 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:24,490 Kissinger Then it's reported back to Tel Aviv, saying in a shocking voice, Kissinger said, As long as I am here, I will not abandon Israel. 239 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:31,870 Was Kissinger at that time secretary of state and national security adviser, speaking as an American or as a Jew? 240 00:29:32,770 --> 00:29:35,380 It's improper to assume that it was both. 241 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:43,660 Just as David Niles was acting both as a Jew and American in his advocacy of Jewish case when he talked with Truman, 242 00:29:44,380 --> 00:29:52,750 Kissinger, who was branded at a certain moment as the husband of the Schechter, was speaking as American and a Jew. 243 00:29:53,290 --> 00:29:58,090 And more than one American president made such pledge to the Israeli prime minister. 244 00:29:58,810 --> 00:30:05,260 But it was never said in such a sentimental matter a manner and certainly not in a joking voice. 245 00:30:06,730 --> 00:30:13,510 That is. Kissinger would not say or do anything that any other member of the administration would have done. 246 00:30:13,870 --> 00:30:16,269 However, there was an attachment, 247 00:30:16,270 --> 00:30:24,430 a connection that made the exchange and communication easier to have between Israelis and Americans such as Kissinger. 248 00:30:31,700 --> 00:30:35,989 The case, the conversation between Kissinger and Dean. 249 00:30:35,990 --> 00:30:44,630 It was another demonstration to the way Israeli and American high ranking officials talked with each other with no hindrances. 250 00:30:45,260 --> 00:30:48,920 They would listen to each other, allowing the other to convince them. 251 00:30:50,330 --> 00:30:55,100 Policy on matters pertinent to Israel had been made not in Washington alone. 252 00:30:55,340 --> 00:31:01,460 It was a mutual process where the voices and interests of both countries were considered and measured. 253 00:31:01,850 --> 00:31:08,420 Religion, ideals and history were the three pillars and bedrock upon which interest were waited, 254 00:31:08,570 --> 00:31:13,850 and dialogue would flourish the interest of each country not always aligned. 255 00:31:14,210 --> 00:31:16,580 But they were superseded by the constant, 256 00:31:16,610 --> 00:31:24,950 or at least became a matter of discussions and negotiations which Israel and the United States could have in such intimate manner. 257 00:31:25,670 --> 00:31:31,490 Does it all mean that the American Israeli relationship will continue to remain special in the future? 258 00:31:32,150 --> 00:31:38,840 Probably. One thing I can promise you, if that won't happen, I will know how to explain that to you. 259 00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:40,160 Thank you very much.